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Star Wars: 20 Gender-Bent Cosplays From A Galaxy Far, Far Away

The Internet is full of rules many people aren’t aware of. These aren’t necessarily rules for conduct, but rather, rules of inevitability. Rule 50 states that for everything, there is a crossover with it. Rule 34 insists that no matter what, there’s an adult version of it and Rule 63 sets the stage for this list by declaring, “There’s a gender-flipped version of it.” Cosplayers have been working hard for years to create perfect homages to their favorite characters, but an unwritten rule for cosplaying must be that you can’t limit a person’s creativity just because their favorite character happens to be of the opposite gender. Because of this, there are hundreds, if not thousands of cosplayers who practice Rule 63 for their favorite franchises, and Star Wars is no exception.

For this list, we wanted to showcase some of the more talented cosplayers we found on the internets, whose love of their favorite Star Wars characters knows no gender boundaries. Some of these cosplayers have altered their target characters to reimagine them as an opposite gender while others simply dressed as the character without regard to their own. Whatever their interpretation, these are all creative and fun ways of honoring some of pop culture’s greatest Sci-Fi characters of all time. All photos used in this list are copyright their respective owners (models and photographers) and are not the property of CBR or its affiliates. Some have been slightly modified to fit this list.

20. PRINCESS CHRIS COSPLAY – PRINCESS LEIA

Chris Calfa is the self-dubbed Genderbent Princess of NYC. He specializes in cosplaying as Disney Princesses and seeing as Disney has acquired Star Wars, this entry is no exception! For his Disney Princess cosplay, he varies in the manner he tackles them. Most of his Princesses are reimagined as Princely versions with some twists.For his Rapunzel from Tangled, Calfa reimagined the hair as a beard, which he braided and interwove with flowers. His unique costumes incorporate the color scheme and style of a Princess into a suit or tunic, which is exactly what you might think a male version of a Disney Princess would look like on screen.

Calfa doesn’t limit himself to masculine interpretations of Disney Princesses. He has also put together an impressive Star-Lord from Guardians of the Galaxy and a Han Solo, which would have made a list of Star Wars cosplay outside of Rule 63. For his homage to Carrie Fisher’s Princess Leia, Calfa has focused on her costume from Star Wars: Episode IV – A New Hope‘s first act. He is wearing the same outfit reimagined and is carrying the same blaster she used to take out a Storm Trooper. It may look like he is listening to music, but those headphones complete the ensemble thanks to their resemblance to Fisher’s iconic hairstyle in the film.

19. OMG CHOMP – HAN SOLO

Alyssa Onofreo is an American cosplayer who goes by the name OMG Chomp. Onofrea lives and works out of Studio City, California where she spends her time working in a wide variety of media. In addition to cosplaying as her favorite characters from Star Wars and other franchises, she hosts a YouTube channel featuring a series called The Filmbaker. As you may be able to tell from that name, The Filmbaker is all about creating desserts based on geek-culture. This can range from Groot cupcakes to just about anything you can think of. She also hosts Disaster Science Lab Kitchen where she bakes experimentally, which “usually end in a mess.”

While she is certainly a talented baker who loves pop culture, she is also a talented cosplayer. Her videos about baking and cosplaying have been featured on sites including The Mary Sue, Kotaku and Bustle to name a few. Her cosplay as Han Solo wasn’t designed for a convention but was made simply for Halloween in 2014. The costume and pose pay homage to a specific shot made by Harrison Ford in 1980 to promote The Empire Strikes Back. It is one of the character’s most iconic photos, which makes this cosplay a necessary addition to this list.

18. MAD ART LAB – SLAVE LEIA

When it comes to cosplaying Star Wars characters, you might think the most common one would be Luke Skywalker or even Darth Vader, but you would be wrong. Go to a convention and you will see far more “Slave Leia” cosplayers walking around than any run-of-the-mill Jedi or Sith. When Carrie Fisher showed up on screen in Star Wars: Episode VI – Return of the Jedi wearing a gold bikini, nerds everywhere instantly swooned. She looked beautiful and alluring in her attire, which has only helped to fuel fantasies in peoples’ minds for over 30 years. Ahem… moving on, the point here is that there are a lot of Slave Leias out there. What you don’t see so often is a guy sporting a gold bikini or even taking on a masculine interpretation of the character.

Ryan Consell isn’t a typical cosplayer and his take on the character was put together to help him tackle his insecurities. He never expected to get much attention, but his initial blog posting of his pose made it to The Mary Sue, Io9, BoingBoing and MTV Geek, as well as many other including a magazine called PoolBoy. Consell’s interpretation of the character is as a male version of Slave Leia, which many have dubbed “Slave Leo.” After getting so much positive attention about the costume online, he began wearing it to Cons, which helped him overcome his insecurities. He wrote a blog entry about his experience called My Year as Slave Leo.

17. DANIELA PINO GUAITA – DARTH MAUL

One of the most astounding aspects of any Star Wars character is the time the filmmakers put into designing the makeup and costumes. Sometimes, a character is beloved more for their look than for their actions on screen *cough* Boba Fett *cough*. A character who received a great deal of attention from Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace wasn’t Jar-Jar Binks, but was instead, Darth Maul. The character was brilliantly portrayed by Ray Park whose skills with a quarterstaff gave moviegoers a thrill with the use of his double-bladed lightsaber. His actions on screen were impressive to behold, but his makeup and appearance were, to put it simply, cool.

One of the problems with Darth Maul is that his makeup isn’t something that’s easy for your typical cosplayer to emulate. In addition to the perfectly symmetrical lines of red and black that make up his face, he also has horns and a handmade black costume. This challenge presented little concern to Daniella Pino Guaita when she decided to put together her gender-bent homage to Darth Maul in 2015. Guaita is a cosplayer who lives and works out of Las Condes, Chile. She works as an Industrial Designer, but her passion is video games and cosplaying. She is obsessed with Star Wars, The Legend of Zelda, various Anime & Manga and is a die-hard fan of everything produced by Studio Ghibli. Lady Darth Maul is but one of her many amazing cosplays you can see on her Instagram.

16. FANTASCI-FI GIRL – LUKE SKYWALKER

Fans of Star Wars will tell you there is one thing about Luke Skywalker that makes him fun to cosplay — the man goes through a lot of costume changes. Over the course of three original trilogy films and Episodes VII and VIII, Luke wore nearly a dozen distinct costumes. You can find cosplayers dressed up as “Farmboy Luke” or even Luke from Return of the Jedi where he is wearing all black, but one of the best choices for a cosplayer to take on was his garb from the time he trained with Master Yoda on Dagobah. The best aspect of this costume is that it is gender-neutral and anyone can put it together, but it takes talent to make it work.

Fortunately, there is Fantasci-Fi Girl who clearly loves the franchise and decided to pay homage to its lead character with this cosplay. For this costume, she styled her hair similarly to Mark Hammil’s in The Empire Strikes Back and threw on a backpack Yoda. She had this to say about the costume: “One of my favorite movie scenes of all time is Yoda training Luke to be a Jedi, making this definitely one of my favorite cosplays that I have ever done!” Unfortunately, Fantasci-Fi Girl appears to have taken herself offline so we aren’t clear on who she is in reality when not cosplaying. If you know her true identity, please let us know so we can give her the credit she deserves!

15. STUCKWITHPINS – CHEWBACCA

In all of Science Fiction, Chewbacca is probably the most beloved character who can (and has) ripped people’s arms off. He’s loyal, he’s cuddly, and he roars when he talks — what more can you ask for? Also, he’s ridiculously old and can pilot a starship among other things, all of which makes him an ideal character to emulate. Unfortunately, cosplaying as Chewbacca usually means you have to jump into a hot suit and that’s never comfortable for long. Fortunately, some intrepid cosplayers have adapted the character into a more feminine aspect, which not only makes Chewbacca more attainable, it’s also a creative way of showing your love for Chewie.

Corrine Alexandra is not a typical cosplayer as her passions lay in photography. She prefers to be the one taking the pictures rather than being in front of the camera, but that doesn’t mean she can’t put together an amazing costume whenever the need arises. She describes herself as a photographer, designer, blogger, connoisseur of zombie movies, collector of curiosities and being creative of many talents. You can check out her photography work and some of her cosplaying shots on her website. Alexandra’s take on Chewie keeps his brown fur and bandoleer while removing much of the furry bits we normally see on the character. In some ways, it’s a fur bikini, but in others, it’s clearly Chewbacca, which is why we love this costume. Alexandra lives and works in the United States where she spends much of her time photographing her surroundings.

14. ATOMIC REDHEAD – LANDO CALRISSIAN

You know a character has a lot of charisma when he is beloved, but his main character trait is that he is a cheat and a scoundrel. We are of course talking about Lando Calrissian with that description and his depictions by Billy Dee Williams and Donald Glover have cemented him in our hearts as one of the most beloved characters in the franchise. Calrissian is charming and the character bleeds a certain machismo in each portrayal. It’s difficult to conceive of him as a woman, but as Rule 63 says, it’s going to happen somewhere online and it’s a good thing it has, because Atomic Redhead nailed the look with her take on the character in 2014.

Atomic Redhead, otherwise known as Janey Ellis, put together her gender-bent version of Lando Calrissian for the express purpose of meeting Billy Dee Williams at the Wizard World Comic Con. She referred to her version as a “Pin-up Lando,” which is an apt description when you look at it. She has a blaster, leather boots, a skirt, and a mini-cape similar to the one worn by Williams in Empire Strikes Back. Ellis lives and works in Southern California where she maintains an active blog covering fashion and unique travel destinations. Her favorite character from the franchise is Calrissian, making her interpretation especially important to her.

13. MISTRESS OF FEAR – KYLO REN

When Star Wars: Episode VII – The Force Awakens hit theaters in 2015, fans were entranced with the new characters thrown up on screen. One of the standout performances was Adam Driver’s Kylo Ren. Over the course of the film, we learned he was the son of Han Solo and Leia Organa, but had rebelled against his teacher, Master Luke Skywalker and joined up with te insidious Supreme Leader Snoke, making him the big bad of the new film series. He has a distinct look thanks to his all-black attire, unique helmet and cross-barred lightsaber, which is why cosplayers all across the world began dressing up as him almost immediately.

Becky Albright is a cosplayer out of the United States who calls herself Mistress of Fear. She is an artist and costume designer who cosplays as a wide variety of characters, often putting a feminine/Rule 63 twist on her favorite folks from pop culture and science fiction. Kylo Ren is one of her favorite characters from the new Star Wars series and she put a lot of effort into portraying him as a woman. When she came up with the concept, she had a specific image in her mind. “I couldn’t stop thinking about it. I couldn’t get the vision of a female Kylo out of my head, with long black hair holding her helmet and lightsaber, the same tortured look in her eye.” She fulfilled her desire and came up with a cosplay truly reminiscent of the character.

12. LEANNA VAMP – STORMTROOPER

If the new series of films put out by Disney have taught us anything, it’s that women can be Storm Troopers too! Gwendoline Christie’s Captain Phasma is a formidable character with some of the series’ most impressive armor (it actually deflected a blaster shot). Before Christie came along, all Storm Troopers were male… at least, there was no indication any of them were women. Cosplaying as a female Storm Trooper is nothing new though and women have been doing it for ages. Few have done it in as well, though, as Ms. LeAnna Vamp.

LeAnna Vamp is a professional cosplayer and Internet Celebrity with numerous acting credits, podcast performances, music videos and more credited to her name. She routinely creates and wears accurate costumes of her favorite characters, which range across all nerddom. Some of her Star Wars cosplays are a bit too risqué for our site, but we wanted to share at least one of her work so her Trooper offered a perfect opportunity. For her female Trooper, she left the helmet at home and created a modified set of armor. Seeing as Storm Trooper armor isn’t very effective anyway, she opted to make a removable midriff, which is a daring style choice for a soldier. If you aren’t familiar with her work, be sure to check out her site, which features dozens of modeling and cosplay pics.

11. AMY HUMPHRIES – POE DAMERON

Poe Dameron is another character introduced in Star Wars: Episode VII – The Force Awakens whom fans instantly latched onto. Oscar Isaac’s character was initially meant to be killed off, but thanks to the fan reaction, he was saved and went on to become an integral part of the following film. Dameron has been compared to Harrison Ford’s Han Solo from the Original Trilogy, so it’s no wonder the character has had a lasting impact on fans and cosplayers alike. There is certainly no shortage of Poe Dameron cosplayers online, but few follow Rule 63. Luckily, we found an excellent example thanks to Amy Humphries.

Amy Humprhies is a cosplayer who lives and works out of the United Kingdom. She is a self-described “Batman collector, artist and die-hard gamer,” all of which helped to spurn an interest in cosplaying. When it comes to Star Wars cosplay, you can’t get any better than her Princess Leia from Return of the Jedi, but for this list, we found her homage to the one and only Poe Dameron. While it may not appear as much more than a jacket (which is spot-on), she also applied the perfect makeup and really does look like what we imagine a female version of the character would be like. Her other cosplaying leans towards characters from Disney and DC, but we absolutely love her work in the Star Wars universe.

10. AURORA ROGER SKYWALKER – ANAKIN SKYWALKER

Whether you love him or hate him, Anakin Skywalker is truly the main character of the prequels in the Star Wars franchise. In the Original Trilogy, he was Darth Vader, but when George Lucas came out with the Prequel Trilogy in the ’90s and early 2000s, we finally got to see Anakin Skywalker before he became the Dark Lord of the Sith. Many cosplayers have gone the route of the adorable Annie as a child while others focused on him as a young Padawan under the tutelage of Obi Wan Kenobi, but those who wanted a challenge dressed up as Anakin after he succumbed to the Dark Side, like the example we found from Aurora Roger Skywalker.

Aurora Rogers Skywalker derived her name from the protagonist from her fantasy books, Aurora, Captain America, aka Steve Rogers and the obvious Skywalker from Star Wars. She is a self-described member of Ravenclaw, a college student and someone who enjoys creating costumes and dressing up as her favorite characters. Her focus on Anakin Skywalker features his look almost exactly as it was seen on film. His costume could arguably be considered gender-neutral but her rendition has a definite femininity to it. Her makeup addition of the scar over his/her left eye is a nice touch and this is one of our favorite cosplays of the character we found online.

9. JOANNA LYNN BERT – OLD MAN LUKE SKYWALKER

Okay, this one’s a bit of a cheat, since it’s not really bending gender, but it is a cosplay created by a female fan, and we think you’ll agree that it is just far too good not to include! There were more than a few fans who had a problem with Mark Hamill’s depiction of Luke Skywalker as an older gentleman in Star Wars: Episode VIII – The Last Jedi (Including Hamill himself). Fans didn’t get the Luke they thought they were getting and while some fans loved the character, others had a problem with him. Perhaps in a move that both celebrates and pokes fun at the character, we found “Old Man Luke Skywalker” by Joanna Lynn simply irresistible!

If you take a moment to check out Joanna Lynn Bert’s Instagram page, you will find a woman who is a Disney Princess. Bert has dressed up as nearly every Disney Princess, from Snow White to Anna and each costume is more brilliant than the last. When it comes to Star Wars cosplays, she is all over the map with amazing depictions of Rey, Princess Leia and Jyn Erso. For whatever reason, she decided to step outside her comfort zone to throw together an Old Man Luke that not only looks amazing with the makeup and hair, it comes equipped with a walker made of illuminated lightsabers. You can’t get much better than that, which is why Bert takes the award for best Luke Skywalker cosplay we have ever seen… and that’s saying something.

8. CORINNE ALEXANDRA – GREEDO

Thanks to the whole “Han shot first” debacle created with the release of the Special Edition back in the ’90s, people have been talking about Greedo more than they did in the preceding two decades. He didn’t stay on film for long, but his death had an impact and folks have been paying their respects by dressing up as the character ever since. He isn’t the most heavily targeted Star Wars character for cosplayers, but many have done a good job portraying him, with few as good as this gender-bent version we found on Corinne Alexandra’s page.

Normally, we wouldn’t feature the same artist twice on a single list, but we couldn’t resist paying respect to Alexandra’s Greedo alongside her Chewbacca. For this Greedo, most of the work was done with makeup and prosthetics. Her gloves and attire also speak to the character and make for a perfect portrayal of the character we all know shot second. Seriously, Han shot first. You know it, we know it and George Lucas knows it. We had to make a slight modification to Ms. Alexandra’s original images for the benefit of some of our more conservative readers, but please check out her original images here.

7. C&C COSPLAY – HAN SOLO AND PRINCESS LEIA

When couples cosplay, they often take on the roles of other couples. Whether they get together as Luke & Leia, Han Solo & Chewbacca or Han & Leia, there are plenty of couples in the Star Wars universe to choose from. Most of the time, you will find a Han & Leia couple walking around just about any convention you attend. It’s familiar and it’s fun! What you don’t often see is a complete gender reversal/Rule 63 of both characters like the one we found from C&C Cosplay done back in June 2014.

The costume for Slave Leia… or Slave Leo… is very similar to the one put together by Ryan Consell mentioned previously. Han Solo is represented in a relatively feminine way with an homage to his costume from the first film. C&C Cosplay live and work out of Vancouver, British Columbia where they not only cosplay, but also own and operate a bakery called C&C Cakery. Their wide-ranging dessert creations pay homage to nerd culture and also look delicious to boot! Many of their creations look as if they came directly from the Star Wars universe and they feature familiar characters and color schemes. You can usually catch C&C Cosplay at local conventions where they specialize in couple cosplay including Rick & Morty and Daft Punk, among others.

6. MORIAH LYNN COSPLAY – KYLO REN

We already featured a Kylo Ren on this list, so why are we doing another? While our first Kylo Ren was a brilliant depiction of the character played by a woman, that rendition was almost a perfect copy of the character we see on screen played by Adam Driver. We wanted to focus on another Kylo Ren (don’t fear, we have more after this one), which took a look at the character if he were reimagined as a woman. For that, we dug deep into the cosplay community and came up with this cosplay creation by Moriah Lynn Cosplay.

Moriah Lynn Cosplay took the character and gave him a feminine spin we couldn’t ignore. While she stayed true to his weapon and the color of his clothing, she decided to focus her costume in a way that accentuated her femininity. By doing this, she created a female version of Kylo Ren that is not only alluring, it’s one we can look at and immediately identify as the character were he a woman instead of a man. Moriah Lynn is a cosplayer, actress and artist who has created and worn some impressive costumes over the years. We are especially impressed with her take on Princess Ariel and Silk from Marvel Comics.

5. LADY VADER COSPLAYER – DARTH VADER

Throughout all science fiction, there isn’t a character as recognizable as Darth Vader… at least when you are talking about a movie villain. Darth Vader is best known for his iconic black helmet, his black costume with associated cape and retro buttons on the front, the way he breathes so menacingly and his penchant for Force Choking anyone around him who displeases him. People have been cosplaying as Darth Vader for over 40 years, but few women have been able to do it as well as the appropriately named Lady Vader Cosplayer.

Choosing to abandon the mask is a bold move, seeing as it is one of Vader’s most recognizable features, there’s little we don’t recognize about this portrayal of the Dark Lord of the Sith. Lady Vader Cosplayer is an American cosplayer who has been dressing up as various characters from her favorite franchises for more than a decade. Her very first cosplay, done back in 2002, was the one we featured here. She hasn’t always kept to Rule 63 with her cosplaying work and has some impressive versions of Catwoman and Belle from Beauty and the Beast you should definitely check out on her Deviant Art page.

4. ROBERT CANON COSPLAY – REY & KYLO REN

There were a lot of scenes in 2015’s Star Wars: Episode VII – The Force Awakens that cosplayers and fans have emulated, but none so often as the one pictured here. In the third act of the film, we finally get to see Rey face off against Kylo Ren in a battle pitting his training and brutality against her desperate rage against the man who just murdered her friend and would-be mentor, Han Solo. The final battle was epic and extraordinary, so cosplayers love throwing down against one another when a Rey and Kylo Ren meet at conventions. In rare cases, a gender reversal comes together and both characters face off in a Rule 63 battle to the death!

This match-up came when Arkady Cosplay (Ren) and Little Sprite Cosplay (Rey) found one another a the Long Beach Comic Expo in 2016. Robert T. Photography snapped a series of photos of the two going head-to-head in a perfect film-worthy reproduction of the aforementioned scene. Little Sprite Cosplay enjoys dressing up as characters from any genre, regardless of gender, while Arkady Cosplay usually tends to favor more feminine characters. For whatever reason, the stars aligned and these two Rule 63 cosplayers found themselves in Long Beach for an amazing series of shots.

3. BEARDED LEIA – PRINCESS LEIA

Carrie Fisher’s Princess Leia is one of the most iconic portrayals of femininity in science fiction. She’s beautiful, but that doesn’t stop her from kicking some Storm Trooper butt whenever it gets hot on a starship or the surface of Endor. She stood up to Darth Vader in the first few minutes of Star Wars, which is impressive for anyone, seeing as how incredibly evil and unforgiving Vader was… not to mention, she was totally guilty of what he accused her of. Regardless, she has always been an icon for young girls and boys to emulate, but you may never think of her the same way now that you have seen The Bearded Leia.

Bearded Leia Cosplay sticks to what works best for him by dressing up as our favorite Disney(ish) Princess in a galaxy far, far away. We decided to use the costume portrayal of Leia from the first film instead of his Slave Leia seeing as there is just too much skin going on with that one. What makes this cosplayer special isn’t that he is dressing up as a woman, but the fact that he, in no way, attempts to hide his rather glorious beard makes him a perfect example of doing Rule 63 right.

2. COS I’M NIKKI – HAN SOLO

Finding a Rule 63 version of Han Solo online isn’t all that difficult. We already presented you with some options on this list but wanted to focus on one last version before hitting you with our number one choice. Han Solo as played by Harrison Ford is demonstrably masculine. In many ways, he’s a bit too masculine with his relatively chauvinistic personality, but that hasn’t kept millions of young children from emulating him. When it comes to women wanting to pretend to be Han Solo, there are feminine interpretations that are far too adult for this site (LeAnna Vamp, we’re looking at you here) and then there are those that are somewhat gender neutral, but only slightly.

Cos I’m Nikki is a cosplayer who almost always focuses on a female character. Even with a penchant to portray women, she still found a way to take on Han Solo and portray him as a woman while still paying respect to his original costume. She put this together in anticipation for the 2018 release of Solo: A Star Wars Story and had her photos shot by Robert T. Photography. Be sure to check out her Facebook Page to see more of her amazing cosplays as well as all the shots for her Solo shoot.

1. VICTORY CROSSPLAY – FINN

For our number one pick, we had no choice but to give some love to Krissy Victory and her portrayal of Finn. Finn was another character introduced in The Force Awakens fans immediately fell in love with. He is portrayed by the incredibly talented John Boyega and it’s the actor himself who brought this cosplay to our attention. Most of the time, a cosplayer will post their images online with the hopes that other fans might see it and spread it around. Very rarely, it will come to the attention of a celebrity like Boyega, but that’s exactly what happened when Victory posted the above image on Twitter.

Within 17 minutes, she received the following from Mr. Boyega himself, “I’m in love.” It wasn’t an extended conversation, but Victory couldn’t help but reply by posting, “@JohnBoyega OMGGGGGGGGG IM DYING HERE JOHN YOU MADE MY LIFE.” Victory is a professional actress but is passionate about her love of cosplaying. Follow John Boyega’s lead and check out her work where you can see this talented cosplayer portray numerous characters from anime, animation, manga, video games and Star Wars. She has been cosplaying since 2012 and is a regular attendee to conventions having won several awards in both gaming and cosplay.